Each month, ELBA connects with a different corporate social responsibility professional to learn about their work and the current CSR priorities at their business. This month we are delighted to feature Kerstin Henshall, Community Development Officer at Citi. Kerstin and her team deliver a fantastic range of community, volunteer and fundraising initiatives that help local communities to grow, with a focus on young people and unemployment. We spoke to Kerstin to learn more about her role and Citi’s CSR goals.

 Hi Kerstin. Tell us about your current role and other experience in this field.
For over 5 years I’ve held CSR roles in corporates, charity and agency working on a range of projects including grant making programmes, charity partnerships, volunteering programmes and impact measurement. In my current position as Community Development Officer at Citi I lead a variety of colleague community engagement programmes that span London, the UK and EMEA geographically. In London, I lead our London Charity Partnership, which has raised £250k since 2018 through colleague fundraising enabling Place2Be services in 20 schools in London for 2 years. In the UK, I manage our volunteering programmes linked to Citi Foundation grants providing colleague engagement in our flagship initiative, Pathways to Progress and an awards scheme recognising colleagues who are driving inclusion, social impact and environment. Finally in EMEA, I coordinate the delivery of Citi’s largest employee engagement programme, Global Community Day Campaign. This provides opportunity for our colleagues, clients, alumni, friends and families to come together and make a positive impact in our communities across the world.  

Why is CSR important to Citi?
Our mission as a company is to enable growth in progress, this covers the work we do for our clients and how we impact the communities we live in and serve. Specifically, our global citizenship strategy is focused on issues that matter to our employees, clients, investors and communities. We align our CSR activity to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. For example, promoting economic progress – the emphasis of another one of our goals (SDG8: Decent Work and Economic Growth) – ties directly to our efforts to boost economic and job growth. Gender equality (SDG5) is also a focus for our engagement efforts, both with our own workforce as we look to tackle key issues such as equal pay and with our community programmes like our support for Girl Rising. And we do all this work through partnerships with our clients, community partners, governments and employees.

Which topics, themes or initiatives are Citi currently focused on?
The Citi Foundation invests in programs that help young people, ages 16-24, pursue their career and economic ambitions by connecting them to on-ramps to opportunity. In 2017, the Citi Foundation announced its largest philanthropic commitment ever with the global expansion of Pathways to Progress, our response to persistent youth unemployment. By 2020, we will have invested $100 million to impact the lives of 500,000 youth globally. Our aim is to make this generation the most employable yet through training and support that develops leadership and employability skills and entrepreneurial mindsets. Citi will also engage at least 10,000 employees as volunteers, serving as mentors, coaches and role models to young people in support of their career progress and aspirations.

What is the best part of your job?
I feel very lucky to get to work with inspirational people and organisations who share my passion for community. I love that no matter what kind of day I’m having, good or bad, I know that somewhere down the line there’s a result that is making a positive impact for individuals and communities.